The state Department of Children and Family Services had extensive contact with the family of 8-year-old Markell Pierce of Round Lake Beach in the four years leading up to his death, according to a newly released timeline.
Despite learning that the young boy was losing weight, eating food from the trash and being forced to hold weights above his head as punishment, and that other children in the home reported being struck by hand and belt, DCFS and affiliated organizations limited their response to referring the family to various community services.
The final attempts by state workers to contact the family were in September and were unsuccessful, according to the timeline. The final referral related to Markell was closed on Sept. 29 after DCFS attempted to call the boy’s mother but did not reach her.
About four months later, on Feb. 6, Markell — who a teacher said was “always smiling” and gave “the best hugs ever” — died after being whipped with a belt and forced to stand in a cold shower, authorities said. An autopsy showed he was malnourished and had numerous bruises.
Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart called it a “slow-motion murder.”
Markell’s mother, 33-year-old Dominique Servant, a now former paraprofessional at the Special Education District of Lake County location at Fairhaven School in Mundelein, and her boyfriend, Joey Ruffin, 38, are charged with murder in the boy’s death.
Assistant State’s Attorney Jeff Facklam said Markell and his 10-year-old sister faced routine beatings with a belt going back at least 22 months — a time range that, if accurate, overlaps with three DCFS investigations and two child welfare service referrals, based on the timeline DCFS released.
‘Visibly smaller in weight and hungry’
Markell was born on Oct. 20, 2017, to Servant and an unnamed biological father. The family’s first recorded interaction with DCFS was in September 2022, when Markell was 4 years old.
DCFS had received a report alleging Servant had used a belt to discipline a child in the home other than Markell. The investigation would close the next month with an indicated finding: Servant admitted she had “whooped” her child, and the finding was placed on the State Central Register.
It would be the first of four investigations — excluding the one into his death — launched by DCFS according to the timeline. The second was launched in August 2024, another in January 2025, and the final one in May 2025.
There were also four child welfare service referrals initiated over the same span: one in February 2023, a second in March, another in December 2024, and finally one in August 2025.
Throughout, Servant and Ruffin repeatedly turned down voluntary services, meant for at-risk families who have been referred for additional assistance and monitoring following a child abuse or neglect investigation, according to the DCFS website.
According to the timeline, some information regarding Servant and Ruffin is left out due to protected information under the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. There are over a dozen references to MHDDCA and HIPAA throughout the timeline.
At least three mandated reporters — professionals required by law to report suspected child abuse or neglect, such as school teachers, social workers and members of law enforcement — are listed as having made reports, and many more were interviewed over the course of the numerous investigations and referrals.
A winter 2025 investigation was launched in early January 2025, stemming from allegations by a mandated reporter against Servant related to food insecurity, the withholding of dinner as a punishment, holding a weight as a punishment, and a missing patch of hair. DCFS assigned an allegation of “inadequate food” and began the investigation.
Markell was interviewed at his school on Jan. 9, more than a year before his death, and told a DCFS investigator he had been hit in the past with an open hand and with a belt, and was being forced to stand with a weight as punishment.
In that same interview, he admitted to looking for food in the garbage, but “cannot explain why,” and also said he was getting food from friends. Multiple mandated reporters also told the investigator that Markell was “visibly smaller in weight and hungry” and had been missing school.
Later, when an investigator interviewed Servant and Ruffin, they noted that “food is observed in the home.”
When interviewed, Servant admitted to disciplining the children by having them stand in a corner and hold weights, one reportedly weighing 8 pounds and the other 4 pounds.
Ruffin also admitted to “disciplining” Markell, saying he “perceives himself as the father figure.”
The missing patch of hair was explained away as Markell having used Servant’s razor to cut his hair and eyebrows.
That investigation was closed in March 2025, with allegations of food insecurity determined to be unfounded. The last time Markell appears alive in the timeline is between Aug. 29 and Sept. 4, when he spent “uninterrupted time” with mandated reporters. What that means, and why Markell spent the time with the reporters, is not clear in the report.
Between Sept. 2 and 29, a Child Welfare Services worker, following up on an August 2025 CWS referral, attempted to visit or contact the family several times with no success. The referral was then closed.
Five months later, Markell was dead. Details on the subsequent investigation were limited to “not affect the criminal proceeding,” the report said.
‘Horrific’
In a statement, a DCFS representative said the criminal and DCFS investigations related to Markell’s death are “ongoing.” The information in the timeline is “consistent with state law and DCFS rules and follows consultation with the Lake County Office of the State’s Attorney to ensure information directly related to the death investigation is kept confidential.
“DCFS does not have additional information to share at this time,” the statement said.
After reviewing the timeline, Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert, who has criticized DCFS repeatedly since Pierce’s death for a perceived delay in releasing the timeline, called it a “mess.”
Between the multiple mandated reporters raising concerns about Markell’s weight, his mother repeatedly declining services, the boy missing and then being pulled out of school, and other evidence that came up during the investigations, he called it, “Horrible … horrific.”
That an investigator hadn’t taken more issue with Markell eating out of the trash was “unbelievable,” Golbert said.
“Apparently, the DCFS investigator said, ‘Oh, okay, he gets food from looking through the garbage and from friends, so he’s getting food,’” he said. “They didn’t do anything.”
Golbert compared the punishment of holding a weight above the head to “gulag-grade stress positions” and was incredulous about the story of Markell using his mother’s razor, questioning why the worker would accept such an explanation.
“Surely this is an agency, institutional problem, a systemic problem, and a supervisory problem,” he said. “At a minimum, supervisors have to sign off on closing investigations.”
Golbert also criticized the timing of the release, which was sent to a reporter on Monday, the day before the state’s primary elections, alleging it was an attempt to hide the story under the election news cycle.
“Now we know why DCFS waited,” he said. “Now we know why they delayed six weeks to release the timeline.”
Jayceon Wright
The case has echoes of another young Round Lake Beach boy’s death — 6-year-old Jayceon Wright in 2022. Both involved “paramours,” the term for partners of a parent living in the household, and both even occurred in the same month. Markell died on Feb. 6, Jayceon on Feb. 25, several days after being taken to the hospital.
And both, as Markell’s timeline shows, had interactions with DCFS leading up to their deaths.
But while Markell’s death has led to the creation of a DCFS timeline, it’s unclear if any such report was created for Jayceon.
A FOIA request for any reports, reviews or case narratives regarding the 6-year-old’s death gave no such timeline, only a handful of annual and quarterly reports spanning from 2022 to 2025 with lists of statistics and no identifying names, as well as a report from the DCFS Office of the Inspector General from January 2022, which was before Jayceon’s death.
A department representative said that “DCFS does not have a timeline for Jayceon Wright available.”
Jayceon’s biological father is currently pursuing a legal case against DCFS and a handful of DCFS employees, alleging they were aware of reports of domestic violence in the home but failed to take the reports seriously and conducted an improper investigation, leaving the young boy in an unsafe household.
